What is SIF (The Skills Injection Fund)? FE Soundbite Edition 698

Welcome to Soundbite Edition 698! 10th June 2023: Have you heard about the new £48M SIF (Skills Injection Fund) for HTQs?

This is the weekly e-newsletter and e-journal brought to you by FE News: ISSN 2732-4095. We know life is busy, so here is a snapshot of the latest announcements and epic thought leadership articles from sector influencers and cool thinkers across FE and Skills this week on FE News.

Have you heard about the new £48M SIF (Skills Injection Fund) for HTQs?

The £48 million Skills Injection Fund (SIF) was launched earlier this week to boost the rollout of Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs). Another week, and yet another new acronym for everyone to get their head around.. if you said to a learner or employer… have you heard of SIF to promote HTQs… would they have a clue what you are talking about?

City & Guilds Foundation’s £1m Big Idea Fund to reduce prisoner re-offending

Personally, I think this is brilliant: City & Guilds Foundation is inviting expressions of interest from charities, prison governors and training providers – as the next stage of its £1m Big Idea Fund is rolled out – to support a reskilling of prisoners, ensuring they go on to lead rewarding and fulfilling lives following their release from prison.

Cool thought leadership articles from sector influencers this week

We have had a whole bunch of cool exclusive articles from across the sector this week and also had a couple of launches of really important campaigns.

Just 14 Black FE College CEOs isn’t exactly reflecting Ethnic Equity… we need to sort this!

My mate Robin Landman launched a really important campaign this week.. that can only happen if everyone in the FE and Skills sector gets behind it: BLG’s Call to Action on Ethnic Equity in FE… with just one black College CEO in London (London has roughly 50% of the Black population of the UK.. that is shocking), and only 14 Black FE College CEOs in the country… c’mon… we need to sort this out.. and long term! FE and Skills is known for being inclusive, in fact we pride ourselves as a sector on this… but data doesn’t lie… and the figures and diversity of leaders… is quite frankly embarrassing… how can we sort this?

Breaking the snobbery

Tom Burton wrote a great article: Breaking the Snobbery: Degree Apprenticeships and Career Advancement.

Mark Dawe wrote: Maths and English Report shows important role of online learning.

Tackling Digital Poverty through skills

Tom Lowe wrote a cool article: Further Education’s role in tackling Digital Poverty through skills.

Nick Dearden wrote: Bridging the gap: Addressing the tech skills shortage with partnerships

Creating an Inclusive Culture

Did you check out this Q&A with Dame Inga Beale, who reflects on her role as the first female CEO of Lloyd’s of London. How to Create an Inclusive Workplace Culture

I loved this article by ETF’s new CEO, Dr Katerina Kolyva: Embracing Volunteering.

Catherine Orridge, Assistant Principal at Newcastle College wrote: ‘Permacrisis’ leading to negative feelings about the future and could learning be the answer?

How to support Neurodiverse talent

Did you check out Reel #4 with our buddies at Cognassist this week? If you missed it, here you go:

How to support neurodiverse employees and the benefits of neurodiverse talent

Introducing the FE Collective.. coming soon!

We pre-launched the FE Collective, in Birmingham (16th Oct is the networking launch and 17th Oct will be ‘scene setting’ and working together on the collaborative report). The first FE Collective we will be thinking about AI and Investing in the sector of the future!

This has been something that has been rattling around inside my head for about four years now.. and is our first ever event thrown by FE News… in 20 years! .. but we don’t want to do this alone. This is in partnership with our buddies at NCFE and is a brand new concept event. No chalk and talk at one of our events! More people will be joining us and helping us shape it. This is the point of the FE Collective.

The FE Collective is a totally flipped conference, it is collective intelligence, knowledge exchange and group think tank, everyone will be working together collaboratively to produce a report as the outcome. It is also run in an agile way… where everyone is welcome, all voices are valued and you can really shape a sector leading report. You will also be able to work with people who really help shape global skills. It is cool!

This is truly made for the sector, by the sector… we’ll be sharing more really soon!… but I am so excited! We have pre-launched the FE Collective, first to those who have been on the journey with FE News, but we will soon be offering a public launch. It is fantastic to see it taking shape. I’d love for you to get involved and help shape this (as you actually really can shape this… not be passive.. and bored in a conference, but actually make a difference). We couldn’t wait 20 years and throw a same ole, same ole event could we?

So come on the journey with us to encourage unity and impactful change in the FE and Skills sector.

More to follow on the FE Collective!

I hope you enjoyed FE Soundbite this week!

Kind regards

Gavin O’Meara

CEO and Founder

FE News and FE Careers